


New York to L.A.

by rsadelle



Category: Bandom, Black Cards, Cobra Starship
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-11-28
Updated: 2010-11-28
Packaged: 2017-10-26 13:17:28
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,085
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/283625
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rsadelle/pseuds/rsadelle
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Gabe flings an arm around Bebe's shoulders to forestall the argument he can see coming. "Come have dinner with me," he says. "Don't make me beg. It's not a pretty sight."</p>
            </blockquote>





	New York to L.A.

Gabe meets Pete's new band in New York, of course. Pete says, "This is the Black Cards," and Gabe notes that he doesn't call them "my band." He remembers what it was like just after Midtown, when he wasn't ready for a new band. That will come in time.

Bebe is lovely, of course, and very sweet. She's in a band with Pete, though, and Gabe knows no one sticks that out without being able to hold their own against him. Even at the end of a day of practice, her hair and makeup are perfect. Her nails are the kind that are only practical for musicians who don't play guitar, and she's very, very young. Gabe's first instinct is not to sleep with her. (Later, he says, "Fuck you," when he tells her this and she laughs at him.) His first instinct is to set her up on a spa date with Victoria. (He does that later, too. Victoria says, "I like her, but, seriously, I do not ever want to know anything about your dick.")

They go to a club later, and Bebe ends up with black Xs on both her hands. "It's not like I'm a teenager," she says when she sees him looking. "I'm twenty."

Pete always did like them young.

Pete's already disappeared into the crowd. Gabe fully intends to go to the bar for a drink, but Bebe says, "Let's dance," and he's not in the habit of turning down pretty girls who ask him to dance.

He never does get that drink, leaves the club sweaty and exhausted and totally sober.

*

Pete calls him a couple of days later and says, "Please take Bebe out to dinner."

Gabe's staring at a fridge that's emptier than he would like, and he laughs. "You looking for a babysitter?"

Pete snorts. "She's not that young. But it's been a long day and she does need a break, so come pick her up and take her out to dinner somewhere."

Gabe closes the fridge and leans against it. "What the fuck, Pete?"

"Look," Pete says, hard and hurting, "she won't fucking listen to me, okay? I need someone who isn't a fucking part of this to tell her you have shitty days in the studio and I can't get Patrick," his voice breaks over the name, "to do it."

Gabe's already grabbing his wallet and shoes. "I'll be there in twenty."

*

Gabe watches them do a take that doesn't work, and then interrupts, high-fiving Spencer, shaking hands with Nate, pulling Pete in for a tight hug where Pete buries his face in Gabe's chest for a moment. He can see the strain around the edges when he tugs on Bebe's hand and twirls her around a bit.

"Tell me you're done here and I can buy you dinner."

Bebe falls back a step. "We're working."

"No," Pete says. "No, we're not. I have a family to see. We're done for the day."

Gabe flings an arm around Bebe's shoulders to forestall the argument he can see coming. "Come have dinner with me," he says. "Don't make me beg. It's not a pretty sight."

Bebe arches her eyebrows at him, looks him up and down. "Are you sure about that?"

Gabe laughs. "I like you, Bebe."

She relents and says, "I guess you can buy me dinner. You might have to beg next time though."

"Are you a pasta and wine kind of girl, a pizza and beer kind of girl, or a sushi and sake kind of girl?" Gabe asks when they're out on the street.

"I think you're forgetting I'm not twenty-one yet."

Gabe shrugs. "You're with me. They probably won't card you."

Bebe stops walking, and Gabe turns to look at her. "I don't need to get busted for it. That's not the kind of career I want."

Gabe is used to people who live by the adage that any publicity is good publicity, but she's absolutely serious about this. He says, "Okay," hooks his elbow through hers, and takes her to a place his few friends who are still edge like.

Bebe smiles at him over the edge of the menu full of extravagantly nonalcoholic drinks.

They tell family stories, talk about music, debate the various merits of Blair and Serena. Neither one of them mentions Pete or the studio.

When they leave, Gabe says, "Let me take you home, or at least call you a cab."

There's an angry glint in Bebe's eyes when she snaps, "I'm young, not a child. I've lived here more than long enough to get myself home on the subway."

That's the first time Gabe thinks about sleeping with her.

*

Pete calls him the next day and says, "Whatever you told her, thank you."

"I didn't tell her anything," Gabe says truthfully.

"I'm not asking for your secrets. Whatever you did is good enough."

Gabe flashes more on what he didn't do.

*

Gabe figures Bebe must be sick of recording a week later and invites her over to watch _Gossip Girl_ episodes of her choice. She insists he feed her, and they have pizza on the couch and watch a hodgepodge of episodes as she thinks of them.

Neither one of them calls it a date, but if they had it would be one of the best Gabe's ever been on.

*

Bebe calls him at ten o'clock on a Saturday night when he doesn't have other plans and is just rattling around his apartment.

"Come dancing with me," she demands. "Nate and Spencer are threatening to abandon me and no one else can keep up with me."

Gabe grins and throws open the doors to his closet. "What kind of place are we talking about?"

"A very cool place." She gives him a name an address, waits for him to promise he's on his way, and then hangs up on him.

Gabe throws on a jacket over his jeans and t-shirt, turning his lounging at home clothes into something worth wearing to a club, and, remembering the last time, downs a pair of shots before leaving.

The dance floor is crowded, but Gabe's height gives him the advantage, and he works his way through the crowd to Bebe.

"You're here!" She grins and tugs on his hand to pull him close.

"I couldn't disappoint you." He gives up on talking after that - it's too loud anyway - and loses himself in dancing until the club closes.

"I know you're not a child," he says firmly when they leave, holding hands and laughing, "but it's very late. I'm putting you in a cab." He hails one, opens the door for her, and hands enough cash to the driver to cover her ride home.

Bebe looks as if she might make a tart comment, but instead smiles at him and says, "Thank you for rescuing me from having to dance alone."

Gabe laughs. "Any time."

*

Bebe calls him a few days into September and says, "I am now a pasta and wine kind of girl."

Gabe says, "Congratulations," and takes her to the nicest Italian place he knows. They order a bottle of wine, but she drinks barely a glass and a half.

"This isn't what I want to be known for," she says, when he offers to top up her second glass.

"I don't understand you," Gabe says, and pours the rest of the bottle into his own glass.

"You don't need to." Bebe twists her glass by the stem, rolling it between her fingers. "You seem like you'd like the mystery anyway."

"There is that."

Between how small she is and how much he's had to drink, they're both at the same level of drunk when they leave: just on the edges of intoxication, where it feels good but not like he doesn't know what he's doing.

"I'll walk you to the subway," he offers.

Bebe leans against him a little as they walk. It's not far, and Gabe's enjoying himself enough that he doesn't really want to say goodnight.

He kisses her for the first time on the sidewalk, just beside the stairs leading down to the subway. Her arms wrap tight around his neck when she kisses back.

*

Pete laughs himself silly when Gabe cautiously tells him that he went out on a date with Bebe and wants to do it again.

"Dude, I'm not her dad," Pete says after he's pretty much gotten himself under control again. "You don't need my permission. But don't fuck up my lead singer, okay?"

Gabe promises, and thinks it's probably a good thing that Pete can refer to her as his lead singer now.

*

Bebe insists on buying Gabe dinner a couple of times, but most of the time, he says, "Let me. Pete Wentz already made me rich and famous. When he does that for you, then it'll be your treat every time."

The first time he says it, she asks, "Do you think he really will?" The look on her face is a mix of uncertainty and sheer want.

"Between Pete and your voice, yeah, you'll be rich and famous."

She looks inordinately pleased by that. "You'd better hope I still want to hang out with you when I'm rich and famous."

"You will," Gabe says with absolute confidence. "I'm always going to be this cool."

Bebe collapses into giggles and lets him pay for dinner.

*

Gabe invites her over a couple of weeks after their first real date for _Gossip Girl_ and pizza. They only make it through two episodes before she climbs into his lap and they make out instead.

They move it to the bedroom, and he gets to see all of her skin as she takes off her clothes. Just as he's thinking it's time to get a condom, he thinks of something else.

"Have you done this before?"

He half expects to get a lecture about how she's not a child, but instead she just nods. "Not a lot, but yes." She runs a hand down his chest. "You're not going to deflower me."

That takes some of the pressure off, but if she hasn't done this a lot, she probably only does it when she means it, which is its own kind of pressure.

He's careful to make it good, and she sighs into his neck afterwards. "Thank you," she murmurs.

Gabe grins even though she's not looking at him. "Any time. I mean that."

It makes her laugh, and she rolls up to kiss him.

He doesn't want to let her out of his bed, but she leaves in the morning to go home before she goes into the studio.

*

Gabe's in the house for the Black Cards' first show, to support Pete and Bebe. He works his way backstage after their set, and Bebe runs and jumps on him, still sweaty and lit up like a fucking candle.

"That was amazing," she all but shouts in his ear. "I love performing."

Gabe kisses her hard, both of them grinning through it. "It's only going to get better," he promises.

*

There are months of one-off shows for the Cards and for Cobra, and Cobra's doing studio work in L.A. instead of New York. Gabe and Bebe see each other when they can, and he gives her a key to his place so if she needs some time away from her roommates she can get it. (He also likes the idea of her sleeping in his bed, even if he's not there.)

*

Pete invites Gabe and the rest of his band over on a Saturday night. Gabe half expects it to be a larger party, but it's just them and some of Ashlee's best homemade pizza.

"We've been talking summer tours," Pete says casually when they're all silently devouring their first slices. "What would you think about us opening for you?"

Gabe's first thought, before he even thinks about ticket sales and shows that work, is how easy it would be if he and Bebe were on the same tour. He's chewing, so he has time to back away from that and think about the business end of it before he speaks.

"Management going to go for that?"

"It was Bob's idea." Pete's given up casual and is flat out grinning.

Gabe may be the frontman, but there are four other people in his band. "What do you think?" he asks them.

"Sweet," Nate says. Gabe can almost see him planning out a summer of beer and football with Spencer.

"Sounds like a good tour," Alex says.

Ryland smirks and says, "Delicious."

Victoria shrugs. "Sounds like fun. As long as you and Bebe can be discreet enough that I don't have to walk in on you."

"You wish we would let you watch," Gabe fires back. Then, to Pete, "Sounds like we're in."

"Awesome. Plus, this way I don't have to worry about you kidnapping my lead singer."

"Someday," Gabe says. "Someday we're going to run away to South America, and then what will you do?"

"Cry into his beer," Nate suggests.

"Absorb us into Cobra Cards: The Instrumental Experience," Ryland says.

"Sell my story to the tabloids," Pete says, and everyone laughs at the idea of Pete voluntarily speaking to a tabloid.

*

Gabe finally gets home again to Bebe lounging on his couch in pajama pants and a t-shirt. She smiles wide and welcoming when he comes in the door, and he crosses the apartment in a few steps to lean over and kiss her.

"Hi," she says, still smiling.

"Hi." Gabe sits and pulls her onto his lap. "I missed you."

"I missed you too." Bebe shifts so she's straddling him, her arms around his neck. "Phone sex just isn't the same." She rolls her hips down over his.

"Not at all." Gabe puts his hands over those hips. "Thank God and Pete we're touring together."

Bebe's smile outshines every light in the room. "I can't wait."

*

Bebe keeps paying rent on her place, but she spends more time at Gabe's. He doesn't want to tempt fate by asking her to officially move in with him, but he misses her when she doesn't stay with him.

It doesn't matter, because it's only a couple of months before they pack up and head out on tour. Pete has enough pull that the Cards have their own bus, even though they really should be sharing or in a van.

Even though they each have their own spaces, Gabe and Bebe still spends more than half their time together. They squish together into one or the other of their bunks, or spread out on the floor of a lounge, to sleep together. They sing drunken duets - more tipsy than truly drunken for Bebe - when their bands are partying together. Bebe sometimes comes out to do the duet "Good Girls Go Bad" (but only after she has a long talk with Victoria that she doesn't mention and which makes Victoria tell Gabe that Bebe's "adorable"), and Gabe sometimes comes out to do Chiddy's part on "Club Called Heaven."

He's going to be sorry when they have to do separate tours.

*

Gabe goes over to the Cards bus looking for Bebe - she stays with him when Pete's family is on tour with them, but she's not on his bus now - and finds Pete and Bronx instead. He's swinging Bronx up over his head so he can touch the ceiling when he hears Bebe's voice let out a soft, "Oh."

Gabe pulls Bronx down and looks at her. "What?"

She smiles, comes across the room and kisses his cheek when he leans down to her. "Nothing. I'll tell you later."

Bronx demands to go up again, and Gabe forgets about it until late that night, when they're crowded into his bunk. It's not really big enough for two, but they'd rather be together.

"Earlier, with Bronx, you said you'd tell me later."

Bebe bites her lip. "I want to be a singer. I really, really want to be a singer, and I want to do it for a couple of years before we have kids."

Gabe gapes at her. He's known her less than a year, and he didn't think they'd get to this point for a while longer, but she surprises him sometimes. He rolls her under him and kisses her breathless. "Marry me," he says in a rush. "I know this isn't the romantic proposal story you can tell people, but marry me. I don't want you to think I won't wait until you're ready."

"Oh," she says, a soft echo of the oh from before. "Oh, yes."

*

Ben wanted to walk, but he says, "Up," when they get to the studio, and Gabe picks him up so he can see through the glass between the control room and the booth.

Bebe keeps singing, but her mouth widens and her eyes crinkle into more of a smile.

"That was good," Sam says into the mic. "Come see your kid before you explode."

Bebe drapes her headphones over the mic, and Gabe turns to the door so he and Ben are waiting for her when she comes in.

"Mommy!" Ben cries.

Bebe takes him from Gabe's arms. "Hi, Benny boy." She kisses his forehead, leans up for Gabe's kiss. "What are you doing here?"

"We came to see Mommy at work," Gabe says. He rests his hand on her waist. "We like getting to drop in on you when you're not on the road."

"You miss recording," Bebe says.

Gabe shrugs. He does, a little, but his Cobras were tired and the Cards are still on the rise, and he wanted Ben as much as, if not more than, Bebe did.

"You're not fooling me," she says, and she taps him on the nose. "Daddy's not fooling anyone," she says to Ben.

Ben laughs, even though he's too young to really understand them.

"Daddy's perfectly happy," Gabe says.

Bebe grins at him. "I bet I can make you happier. You have to act surprised later, but Pete wants to turn 'Aces High' into a duet with you."

Gabe reflexively looks at Ben.

"I'm sure we can find someone else to watch him while we record," Bebe says. "But it might mean you'll have to come out on tour with us."

Gabe smiles slowly, to match her grin. "How lucky we are that Ben isn't in school yet."

"Very lucky," Bebe laughs, and she kisses him again, Ben between them.


End file.
